Psalms 84:6

Who passing through the valley of Baca,.... Kimchi interprets it a valley of springs, or fountains, taking the word to be of the same signification as in Job 38:16, and mention being made of a well

Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. -Second part of the First strophe. The rich consolation in God which belongs to believers, like David, even in trouble. Verse 5.

Passing; or, being used to pass; for he seems not to speak of one particular act, but of a common course or custom. Baca; a place, so called, which some Jewish and other writers affirm to have been a very dry place, and therefore incommodious for travellers in those hot countries, and in hot seasons; which place may be here mentioned not exclusively to other ways and passages, for this highway being but one, and on one side of Jerusalem, could not be a general way for all the Israelites thither, but synecdochically for all places of like nature, which made their journey to Jerusalem unpleasant or inconvenient. But their zeal for God’ s service did easily overcome this and other difficulties. Or, the valley of tears, as this valley might be called, for the trouble or vexation which travellers found there by reason of drought, or otherwise. A well, or wells, i.e. they dig divers little pits or wells in it for their relief. This trouble they willingly undertook rather than to neglect the opportunity of going up to Jerusalem at their solemn times. And possibly they did this, not only for themselves, but for the benefit of other travellers who came after them; whereby they showed both their piety and charity. The rain also filleth the pools; God recompenseth their diligence in making pits, or little pools, or cisterns with his blessing, sending rain wherewith they may be filled, and the thirsty travellers refreshed. Possibly the words may be thus rendered, which is more agreeable to the order of the Hebrew text, yea, or also, (and so the Hebrew particle gam hath that emphasis which, as some learned interpreters observe, is not given to it in other translations; they do not only make little pits or wells, as it was now said, but also,) pools or cisterns (for this Hebrew word is by the learned rendered both ways) which (so the relative particle is to be understood, as it is very frequently in many texts of Scripture) the rain filleth, or may fill, i.e. which may receive and keep the rain which God sendeth for the refreshment of these travellers, whose great numbers made the provision of water more necessary.

Psalms 84:6 [Who] passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.Ver. 6. Who passing through the valley of Baca] εντηκοιλαδιτουκλαυθμωνος (Sept.). That is, of tears, say some; of mulberry trees, say others; the one are moist, the other use to grow in more dry places. Between them both they may serve, saith one, to make up a more complete emblem of this miserable world, made up of woes and wants. In hoc exilio, saith Bernard, in hoc ergastulo, in hac peregrinatione, in hac valle lachrymarum, &c. Make it a well] They are as cheerful in their travel to God’ s house as if they had plenty of water all the way. Finis edulcat media, the joy of the Lord is their strength, whereby they are carried on an end, as they say, to their journey’ s end, the joyful preconceit of appearing before God in Zion allaying their great thirst.

(6) Who passing through the valley of Baca.—All the ancient versions have “valley of weeping,” which, through the Vulg. vallis lacrymosa, has passed into the religious language of Europe as a synonym for life. And Baca (bâkha) seems to have this signification, whatever origin we give the word. The valley has been variously identified—with the valley of Achor (Hosea 2:15; Joshua 7:24); the valley of Rephaim (2 Samuel 5:22)—a valley found by Burckhardt in the neighbourhood of Sinai; and one, more recently, by Renan, the last station of the present caravan route from the north to Jerusalem. Of these, the valley of Rephaim is most probably in the poet’s mind, since it is described (Isaiah 17:5) as sterile, and as the text stands, we think of some place devoid of water, but which the courage and faith of the pilgrims treats as if it were well supplied with that indispensable requisite, thus turning adversity itself into a blessing. He either plays on the sound of the word (Baca, and becaîm) or the exudations of the balsam shrub gave the valley its name. The rain also filleth the pools.—That rain is the right rendering of the Hebrew word here appears from Joe 2:23. The rendering pools follows the reading, berechóth; but the text has berachóth, “blessings,” as read by the LXX. and generally adopted now. Render yea, as the autumn rain covers (it) with blessings, i.e., just as the benign showers turn a wilderness into a garden, so resolution and faith turn disadvantage to profit. (Comp. Isaiah 35:6-8; Isaiah 43:18 seq.)

Verse 6. Passing through the valley of Baca make it a well] Instead of bacha, a mulberry-tree, seven MSS. have בכה becheh, mourning. I believe Baca to be the same here as Bochim, Judges 2:1-6, called The Valley of Weeping. Though they pass through this barren and desert place, they would not fear evil, knowing that thou wouldst supply all their wants; and even in the sandy desert cause them to find pools of water, in consequence of which they shall advance with renewed strength, and shall meet with the God of Israel in Zion. The rain also filleth the pools.] The Hebrew may be translated differently, and has been differently understood by all the Versions. גם ברכות יעטה מורה gam berachoth yaateh moreh; "Yea, the instructor is covered or clothed with blessings." While the followers of God are passing through the wilderness of this world, God opens for them fountains in the wilderness, and springs in the dry places. They drink of the well-spring of salvation; they are not destitute of their pastors. God takes care to give his followers teachers after his own heart, that shall feed them with knowledge; and while they are watering the people they are watered themselves; for God loads them with his benefits, and the people cover them with their blessings.

6. Passing through the vale of Baca they make it a place of springs, Yea, the early rain clotheth it with blessings. The word Baca is derived from the root which means to weep, but it nowhere means weeping, for which words of a different form are used. Here, as in 2 Samuel 5:23, it probably denotes some kind of balsam-tree, so called from the ‘tears’ of gum which it exudes. The vale of Baca or the balsam-trees was some vale which, like the vale of Elah or the terebinth (1 Samuel 17:2), and the vale of Shittim or acacias, took its name from the trees which grew there. Balsam-trees are said to love dry situations, growing plentifully for example in the arid valley of Mecca; and this is clearly the point of the reference. The vale of Baca was some waterless and barren valley through which pilgrims passed on their way to Jerusalem; but faith turns it into a place of springs, finding refreshment under the most untoward circumstances, while God refreshes them with showers of blessing from above, as the autumnal rains clothe the dry plains with grass and flowers. Cp. Isaiah 35:1 ff., Isaiah 35:6 ff.; Isaiah 41:18 ff.; and see Tristram’s Natural Hist. of the Bible, pp. 30, 455, for a graphic description of the marvellous way in which the rains in Palestine transform the country from a brown and dusty desert to a lovely garden. Once more we have to note the singularly bold use of metaphor which is characteristic of this poet. The familiar phrase ‘the vale of tears’ comes from the Vulg. vallis lacrimarum, and it is possible that such an allusion to the derivation of the word is intended. It is natural to regard the pilgrim’s experience as a parable of the pilgrimage of life, but this secondary application must not be allowed to supersede the original meaning. This verse has suffered a strange fate in translation. The English Versions follow Jewish authorities in taking berβchτth as the plural of berηchβh, ‘a pool,’ not, as it must be, of berβchβh, ‘blessing.’ The LXX renders. The lawgiver shall give blessings, taking mτreh to be connected with tτrβh, law: and similarly Jerome, The teacher shall be clothed with blessing, a rendering followed by Luther.

Who passing through the valley of Baca - This is one of the most difficult verses in the Book of Psalms, and has been, of course, very variously interpreted.

6. Valley of Baca—Valley of weeping, or lamentation. That there was a valley of this name would appear from the manner of referring to it, and also from the use of the definite article, äáëà, (the